


Infected

by KingRichRock



Series: Retirement, Huh? [3]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, West Wing Quotes and Ref.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 06:19:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7673335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingRichRock/pseuds/KingRichRock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate Bishop has been stuck between a rock and a hard place, finding her life spiraling out of control as she can't keep up with Clints legacy of getting the crap beat out of him. After three years of falling down a seemingly inescapable hole, Clint and Natsha help her find the straight and narrow again in this tale of devoted friendship and overcoming hardships together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Infected

**Author's Note:**

> So the title for this is from Bad Religions hit song. It's a bit on message and what not.  
> Hope you enjoy.

Kate couldn’t stop it, and she knew that she didn’t ever want to. Being an Avenger, an honest to god, full-fledged Avenger was the most exhilarating and awesome thing ever. Except for the part where she seemed to be the main target half the time because she was the ‘weakest’ and made for an easier target than Iron Man or Thor or Cap. And then there was the falling off buildings, constant explosions, and getting hit and the head. No wonder Clint had told her he didn’t mind being deaf some days. At this rate, she’d be needing her own Stark Brand Hearing Aids. 

 

There was also the drinking and pills to numb the pain, because she realized over a year ago that this pain never went away. And the fact that Clint never seemed to need pain meds or alcohol to numb the pain or her almost weekly visits to med bay for patch ups made her resent him a little. If she was honest with herself, it was why she hadn’t been to Clint and Nat’s bar and had avoided all of their phone calls and unannounced visits to Avenger tower and the old Apartment building in Bed-Stuy. She usually stayed at Cassie’s or America’s these days, but still managed to be untraceable. And she kept that up for over two years after her last interaction with Clint. 

 

That was until one cold December night, almost three years since she had joined the Avengers and had continued her cycle of Avoiding Clint, mild alcoholism and drug abuse, and half-assed (yet still remarkable) crime fighting and Avenging. She had slacked on her neighborhood patrolling recently, and had ignored most of the petty thieves and drug dealers because she was too damn tired most days to do anything but her day job. So when Cap called her on his Stark phone to come in for a briefing, she schlepped all of her gear on and hopped on the motorcycle she had traded in for her moped, deciding the need to be an edgy bad ass was more important than the need to be frugal. 

 

And so when she arrived at Avengers tower she was very surprised (pissed) to see Clint Barton, in the flesh, with his stupid small smile and kind eyes. So naturally she began to turn around to walk away when he was on her faster than she believed his oldish ass could, and she had no choice now but to confront him. 

 

“Hey Katie.” Clint said softly, not touching her but making the effort to extend kindness and care to her none the less. His beard was a little distracting as it was finally a solid wall of dirty blonde on his face instead of non-descript stubble. He had smile lines from laughing and looked a thousand more times at ease. His hair was a little longer, but he was still the same old Clint. 

 

“Don’t fucking call me Katie.” She snarled, and Clint frowned a little. 

 

“Fine, whatever. We’ll do it your way. You haven’t been around for two years and have ignored every attempt from me and Nat to contact you. So here’s the deal.” Clint began, and her heart dropped a little, because this was the same tone he had brought to her years and years ago when he told her to vacate the mantle of Hawkeye back to him and give him back his bow. “Cassie and America both called me within a few days of each other. The alcohol is one thing, and I know some people can function on it without being an asshole. You can’t.” He snarled, and Kate mentally felt the sting, which coming from someone who resented drunks more than anyone else, really hurt. “And even if that weren’t the worst of it, the fucking pills Kate. That shit will fucking kill you. You can’t take fucking OxyContin for the pain and then fucking Amphetamines for the drowsiness. You’ll kill yourself Kate. And I love you, you little shit. And so does Nat. And Cap. And Thor and Tony and everybody else. Lucky loves you. Liho kinda likes you in that odd way that people who aren’t Nat receive. No one want’s to deal with a dead Avenger, let alone a fucking friend who O. D’s because she’s on a self-hatred trip. I know it hurts, and I know the job isn’t easy. But I’m too old to be trucking my ass to Bed-Stuy every fucking night with Lucky to clean up your mess. And it would hurt everyone if something happens to you. You’re careless and you need help. It’s only me that’s gonna be your intervention Kate, because the next step is they kick you off the Avengers, for good. They don’t need a goddamn junkie. They need someone they can rely on to have their backs. So let me take you home and we can catch the tail end of the Mets and Yankees game and we can sober you up and maybe just save you from yourself like you did for me.” Clint said, tears in the corners of his eyes as he held his hand onto Kate’s shoulder. 

 

She wanted to so badly say yes, but something deep in her was screaming at her to scream at him and say she was fine and didn’t need help. Then she realized that was a VERY Clint Barton response, and that she was finding herself in the hole she had helped pull him out of all those years ago. And here he was for her, to repay the favor. Because she was more family to him than anyone else except Natasha. She was the daughter they could never have, and they cared for her. And it was that thought that made her begin bawling her eyes out as she collapsed into Clint’s arms and he took her to the black Ford Fusion he had driven there, setting her up safely in the passenger seat for a ride back to his flat. 

 

Kate zoned in and out a bit on the trip, feeling for the first time in what seemed like a long time the contradictory natures of the medication she had been abusing. 

 

They made it to Clint’s within an hour, and he helped bring her up the stairs, allowing her to change into some of the old clothes she had kept there (and to their credit, never throwing away) years before. She could hear the jovial atmosphere as Clint had gone down to tell Natasha she was in the loft changing. Kate sat herself down on the spare bed they had tucked away for her, and was very glad for her very loving mentor and best friend. 

 

The bar had gone quiet around 10, as Clint and Natasha closed up shop early in order to tend to their young guest, who had since felt the debilitating effects of withdrawals. Clint’s solution was a beer to help the alcohol withdrawal, but allowed her to sweat out the need for pills for a few days. From that point on, they didn’t leave her side, and made sure she was well tended to. 

 

Kate had visits every few days, either from her Avengers teammates offering words of love and encouragement because they believed in her and her ability to get better. From her friends form the Young Avengers who reminded her they would be there for her until the end of time. Natasha would sit there most days and hold her close as she found herself often sick from the withdrawals. She would hear the sweet and soothing voice of Natasha singing melodies to Kate that seemed almost like lullabies in Russian. Other days she would read books to her or watch TV with her. 

 

Lucky and Liho were permanent residents of her bed, only ever leaving her side to use the bathroom, eat, or go for a jog with Clint. They kept her warm during those cold nights, even when the heater was on max, because of the chills she felt deep down in her bones from the withdrawals. But there they were, keeping her warm and safe day in and day out. 

 

Clint had been there to, but not as much. He took care of her in the late hours of the night when she was asleep and Nat needed to rest, but he took over for her as an Avenger while she rested and got better. He cleaned up Bed-Stuy again, and he was remarkably happy about being able to help again. 

 

She began to feel better and started to regain some of her strength after a month of intensive care by Natasha. She was walking at Christmas, and had been clean for a little under month when Clint brought home a ham for them to consume as a family. And this was how things progressed through the New Year. 

 

Kate had initially lost most of her muscle mass very quickly while she was detoxing, only preventing total atrophy after the first few days by being forced to take baby steps with Natasha. And by the time mid-January hit, she still had yet to put on any muscle, finding herself going more fat than she had ever had, shattering her self-confidence. 

 

And it was in that desperate hole, hoping that the drugs could make her skinny and fit again that she went looking for some in Clint’s flat, but there were none. All the alcohol had been locked up, and she was frantically looking for a coat as she began to drink some of the isopropyl alcohol (cut with a lot of water) in a desperate attempt to feel alright with what was happening to her. She got halfway through getting her coat on and her fourth cup of the deadly concoction when the light flicked on, Clint sitting down, obviously having watched the whole ordeal. 

 

And the anger she had thought she was going to see in his eyes wasn’t there. It was only compassion. 

 

“Aren’t you going to scream at me for being weak and pathetic and a failure.” She asked softly, silently crying. 

 

“No. Because when you relapse it doesn’t mean you’re giving up; it just means it’s hard right now. And I figured you’d be here. I heard your comments earlier tonight about the shape you were in and I think I have a solution. So we’re gonna sober you up and hydrate you because that shit is fucking killer for your liver, literally. And then I have a surprise for you. 

 

And so it was with those words that Clint helped her back upstairs to her area and put her to bed, pulling up a chair to read a book about medieval archery while Kate slept in front of him, their animals on her once again as the gentle snores of both Kate and Natasha pierced the otherwise silent room. 

 

When Kate awoke the next morning, she saw that Clint had left a small breakfast in his stead on top of a change of loose and comfortable sweatpants and an old purple shirt of his. She ate the small meal and quickly changed before making her way downstairs. 

 

The sight she saw wasn’t any different than the usual scene of their bar in the morning. Some miscellaneous do-gooders had shown up for their morning coffee and what not before beginning their work in the cities. These were some of the lesser known heroes, like Jessica Jones and Iron Fist while some of the bigger names too like the Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Strange and even Peter Parker. 

 

But the one-person missing was the owner of the damn place, Clint Futzing Barton, whom she needed to find. When she approached Natasha, she slid her a small piece of paper with Clint’s familiar chicken scratch writing, saying to meet him on the roof. 

 

And so that’s what Kate did. She climbed her way up the stairs slowly and made her way to the roof, having adorned a jacket that she remembered being a little looser. He was up there with Lucky and Liho, doing target practice like they had done together when he had first retired. 

 

It was then that he noticed her, a small smile returning to his face. 

 

She looked at him a bit confused at first, because her usual gear wasn’t there. Instead, there was the Junior Archer set and arrows she had bought in LA when she had split a few years back. It had an insanely light draw weight and wasn’t really what “Hawkeye” would use. Yet it was there with her arm guard and shooting glove, so she figured there was a reason. 

 

“Well Kate, from the look on your face, I feel I should explain. You lost a lot of your muscle mass, and I don’t want you to over exert yourself at first so you don’t get physically or mentally discouraged. And I need you to know that it’s okay to not be perfect again. Not right away. Because you have to rediscover who you are now and part of that will be how you shot and fight. 

 

And so they shot until Kate was sore, which was a disappointingly short one hour of missing and near hits, vaguely only coming close to the center of the target. But they kept at it every day until summer rolled around and Kate was getting back into her original routine. She was shooting on her own Bow, using her own arrows, and was sparring with Natasha and Clint regularly, happily beating Clint and enjoying the informative ass whooping’s from Natasha. By the time August rolled around she was once again palling around with the Avengers, living with Clint and Natasha almost full time now, and they enjoyed the season changing from the smell of piss and pennies to a subtler Autumnal red that carried the breeze that one could almost fool themselves into believing was the smell of Cinnamon and happiness. 

 

Kate was coming up on a year sober with Clint and Natasha when Thanksgiving rolled around at Avengers Tower, the whole crew was present. Avengers, new and old, friends, and family. They feasted on Turkey and potatoes and exchanged joyous stories for hours before most people meandered off to their rooms or the guest rooms for the night. But not Kate Bishop, who found herself alone on a balcony overlooking the East River from her vantage point, smiling into the cold weather that felt so much like home. 

 

She realized she was no longer alone after half an hour, and she just smiled at the familiar breathing behind her. 

 

“Good to see you Katie.” Clint had said, coming up next to her and leaning on the balcony edge, overlooking the very long fall down into the city below. 

 

“Good to see you, Clint.” Kate said, smiling at her grizzled mentor. Clint had maintained his beard, allowing it to grow to a formidable size, with his dirty blonde hair now in a ponytail that preached his shoulder blades. He looked a million times happier than he ever had as an Avenger. 

 

“I’m glad to hear that Kate. And I’m glad you see that you’re doing so well.” Clint said, passing her a hot cocoa, sipping their drinks in silence as they looked at the beauty of the city below. 

 

“How did you do it Clint?” Kate said, breaking the peaceful silence between them. “I was becoming everything you hated in your father and yet you showed me love and kindness. How did you do it?” She asked, wondering why she was worthy of his and everyone else’s care. 

 

“Because I love you Katie Kate. You aren’t like family to me. You are my family. And so I see you running down the paths that plagued my family and my childhood and I couldn’t help but do everything I could to help you. There’s an old quote from a TV show made a few years after you were born called the West Wing, and in it was two main characters. One of them was a sober alcoholic who was the boss and he had an employee who was circling the drain, suffering from PTSD. When he asked him about why he had gone to the lengths to help him get therapy and help him keep his job when he had started completely falling off, he said-

‘This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey doc, can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'

\- that’s why Kate. Because you were down in the hole and needed help. I love you Katie Kate and so does Nat and you just can’t let someone you love slip away into the hole. And know that you’ll never be alone. You have us and you have your friends and you have your teammates, and at the end of the day, no matter what kind of a day it had been, that will always be true.” Clint said, taking a drag on his cocoa as Kate silently looked on at him with tears in her eyes. 

 

Kate gave him a huge smile before a bone crushing hug as they both laughed a little before going back inside to where Natasha was waiting for the Worlds two greatest archers, and made their way to their rooms for the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Please leave feedback!  
> The West Wing Quote honestly hits me like a train every time.


End file.
